Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road eBook

“Certainly not. As you may have guessed
already, we are a band of road-agents, whose field
of action we have lately confined to the Black Hills
country. I have the honor of being the leader,
and you have doubtless heard of me—­Deadwood
Dick, the ‘Road-Agent Prince,’ as the
Pioneer persists in terming me. Just at
present, things are rather sultry in the immediate
vicinity of Deadwood, so far as we are concerned,
and we sought this locality to escape a small army
of the Deadwood military, who have been nosing around
after us for the past week.”

“Well—?”

“Well, we happened to see a man and woman come
this way, and believing that it must lead to somewhere
or other, we followed, and here we are, out of the
reach of the blue-coats, but, I take it, in
the way of a party of secret miners. Is it not
so?”

“No, not necessarily so, unless you put yourselves
in the way. You wish to remain quartered here
for the present?”

“If not contrary to your wishes, we should like
to, yes.”

“I have no objections to offer, providing you
will agree to two points.”

“And what are they, may I ask?”

“These. That you will camp at the mouth
of the passage, and thus keep out any other intruders
that may come; second, that you will keep your men
to this side or the valley, and not interfere with
any of our laborers.”

“To which I eagerly agree. You shall experience
no inconvenience from our presence here; you furnish
us a haven of safety from the pursuing soldiers; we
in return will extend you our aid in repelling a host
of fortune-seekers who may any moment come down this
way in swarms.”

“Very well; that settles it, then. You
keep your promise, and all will go well.”

The two shook hands: then Redburn turned and
strode back to dismiss his forces, while Dick and
his men took up their position at the place where
the fissure opened into the gulch. Here they made
preparations to camp. Redburn, while returning
to his men, heard a shout of joy, and looking up,
saw, to his surprise, that the old “General”
and Alice Terry were locked in each other’s
arms, in a loving embrace.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote D: This crusher is said to have been
the first introduced into the Black Hills]

CHAPTER XIII.

AT THE CABIN.

What did it mean?

Had the old hump-backed, bow-legged mine-locater gone
crazy, or was he purposely insulting the beautiful
maiden? Fearless Frank stood aside, apparently
offering no objections to the hugging, and the Indians
did likewise.

At least Miss Terry made no serious attempts to free
herself from the “General’s” bear-like
embrace.

A few bounds brought Redburn to the spot, panting,
breathless, perspiring. “What is the meaning
of this disgraceful scene?” he demanded, angrily.